RUSSIA STARTS SUPPLIES OF SU-35 FIGHTER JETS TO CHINA

02.11.2016

The Russian side has started to meet commitments on supply of the Su-35 fighter jets to China.

Russia has started the first phase of fulfillment of obligations of a contract with China on supply of the Su-35 fighter jets, the TASS news agency reported, citing Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC), Vladimir Drozhzhov.

“Delivery of these aircraft to China is carried out in terms, defined by the relevant contract. Now, the planned fulfillment of the first phase of the contractual obligations is carried out,” Drozhzhov said.

He also noted that Russia and China concluded an intellectual property protection agreement in order to protect Russian equipment, installed at these fighter jets, against an unlicensed copying. A specially created Russian-Chinese working group will monitor compliance with the intellectual property protection.

As the Rossiya-24 TV-channel reported, all information in cabins of the Su-35s, which Russia will supply to China, will be in Russian language. Russian developers spent about a year, trying to adapt the electronics to the customer’s language, but it was revealed that it is difficult to read Chinese hieroglyphs on crystal liquid displays of the aircraft, unlike of the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. Therefore, Chinese consumers have decided that it will be easier to teach their pilots Russian language.

The contract on supply of the 24 advanced Russian fighter jets to the China’s Air Force was signed after the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of China, Xu Qiliang, held on November 17, 2015.

The cost of the agreement, including supply of surface equipment and reserve engines, is estimated at no less than $2 billion.

China has become the first country, to which Russia supplies the Su-35 advanced fighter jets.

The Su-35 multirole fighter belongs to the 4++ generation of long action radius. The aircraft is capable to reach the speed up to 2,500 kilometers per hour, the flying range is 3,400 kilometers, the combat radius – about 1,600 kilometers. The fighter jet is armed with a 30 mm cannon, it has 12 suspension points for attachment of weapons, including missiles and bombs.